March 27, 2012

"Life passes so quickly that is it obviously better to have a most splendid crown and a little suffering, than an ordinary crown and no suffering.

When I think that for a sorrow borne with joy, I shall be be able to love You more for all eternity, I understand clearly that if you gave me the entire universe with all its treasures it would be nothing in comparison to the slightest suffering.

Each new suffering, each pang of the heart, is a gentle wind to bear to You, O Jesus the perfume of the soul that loves You;

(last frost of the year)

The more the soul grows in love, the more it must grow in suffering too.

March 26, 2012

While I was looking for my old cars in my files I found all those other car shots. These would be the ones I take while my children shout, "Mom!!! Mom!! Did you get it? Did you get it???? Oh my GOSH! Did you SEE that??"

So yes, I saw it. I got it. Here ya go. <g>(Strasbourg, France below)

Next to us in the garage in Luxembourg. Seems wild they let our crazy gang park next to these lol. There was a brief tutorial about how to exit the vehicle before the doors opened. And about not drooling on other people's cars....

March 25, 2012

White balance, you say? We care about this why? Well, white balance makes the difference between your kids having a nice healthy glow or a funky neon yellow glow when photographed at functions in the school gym or the mall or other places with flourescent light. It can make them look a little gray/blue or near cardiac arrest in shaded areas or near north facing windows on cloudy days. It can ruin birthday party pictures.

Got your attention? Good, because this is an easy fix.

Cameras come equipped with various white balance settings to suit your setting. By default it is on auto and some do pretty darn well there in many situations. But again, giving your camera a little hint goes a long way to better pictures. For instance, telling it you are in the shade will warm up your image by toning down the blues and filtering with yellows. If you tell it you are in a room lit by incandescent lights it can filter with blue instead and so on. Here is why...

Light is not white.

In fact, the light illuminating your scene might be very cool (lots of blue) or very, very warm (lots of gold). Your camera knows this. It knows specifically the ratios of different colors from various light sources. What your camera may not know, is which light source you are using at that moment. That makes for images with varying degrees of color cast. You have two options to fix this.

1.) Set your white balance in camera. You usually can choose between auto, sunny, cloudy, shade, tungsten/incandescent, flourescent, and flash at minimum. Auto isn't a bad place to start (it automatically adjusts to flash when shooting in auto mode for instance) unless you are in a gym or indoors on an overcast day. (If you use a dslr in manual mode you can even set a custom white balance by photographing a white or gray card but that is another story entirely.)

You may not have time to mess around with the camera or might be using your iphone etc. No problem because...

Real quick - some examples of both. The first picture is of a plate of Alannah's Blarney Stones on St. Pat's. It was taken indoors at night with the lights on causing a really yellow cast. Setting the camera again took care of that.

The next image was nearly a toss-er. It was Abbie first thing in the morning by a north facing window on a rainy day. It was way underexposed and left her so blue she looked ashen. No problem. Free editors like Picmonkey.com to the rescue!

It works like this. Upload your image. Go to 'colors' and then 'neutral picker'. Drag the eye dropper to something that ought to be white in your picture. In this case I chose a stripe on her nightgown. The nightgown was not a pure white itself so the editor over adjusted initially. I used the slider to bring the temperature back down a bit.

I also hit 'exposure' and slid the 'brighten' slider considerably, which is another post. All that to say, don't delete pictures you love that didn't turn out as well as you hoped until you try a little post-processing fix. Most people have some pictures from sports auditoriums, museums, or bowling alleys they can experiment with. If you are one of them, consider that your Weekend Challenge.

March 24, 2012

It isn't like there haven't been more pressing things to do lately, but hyacinths wait for no (wo)man. That window is so tight that I photographed these buds in the morning and by afternoon they had already unfurled their trumpets. Just like that.

March 23, 2012

I was not expecting to write this post this month. Of course, I had not ever expected to be writing a post from this beautiful corner of the planet in the first place. I serve a God of surprises, one after another. And He has delivered a whopper in the last week.

This summer I will be writing to you from another country. Again.

Curious? Let me give you a hint. What do all these things have in common:

(royals pic from Defence images)

Don't let my glasses throw you lol. It was all I had of me lately. And yes, I will be reporting from the beautiful British Isles come summer. There had been hints over the past several weeks. There was also potential new opportunity here locally. We were just getting so ready to KNOW that we beseeched St. Joseph to join us in that intention last week. Amazingly, the day after the novena word came down on both fronts. The opportunity here was definitely not to be, and a wonderful new door opened in England.

I have no idea what that will end up looking like. We have been researching housing and have seen bright, open, gallery white spaces as well as stately old Miss Potter style homesteads. Tudor copies to townhouses. Remains to be seen what that will come down to in the end. My head is still spinning.

For this Anglo-phile it is a dream come true. I was a charter subscriber to Victoria Magazine and still own every one of them. While my high school friends were caught up with Madonna, and long before people had personal computers, I was enthralled with biographies of old English royalty. There are books on chintz and china, lace and needlepoint on my bookshelves. I have never even needlepoint-ed. (is that a word?) My daughter and I have developed strong opinions on variations of black tea. I was born for this <g>

Still, I would be kidding you if I didn't say that rapturous joy over this prospect is the only emotion we have experienced. I will be honest, when things are going well in my life I rarely rock the boat. In fact it would be more accurate to envision me huddled at the center - in my lifejacket - holding very, very still. So it was a conscious act of faith to step out of that hull and consider that there might be even more opportunity and possibility someplace other than the pond on which I was floating. Big leap of faith.

The train of thought went like so.... This house is not particularly full of character, but for the first time in maybe ever, it works. What if the next one didn't? We have good neighbors. Even if it did take 18mo for the neighbor to speak to us on ground level. (ie instead of from her balcony, poised for a hasty retreat) What if the new ones are awful? I haven't had to use my GPS in recent months. I was enjoying that. I like knowing where the store is. We found a dentist. We have a groove.

What if....??

Let me tell you, you can 'what if' until you can barely breathe, which is why my dear Gram did not approve of 'what if' in the least. And that knowledge brought me up short with this 'what if' instead - What if God knows all these things. What if He knows the plans He has made for me, plans to bless and not to curse. What if I just step out in trustful surrender and enjoy the ride? Like I did two years ago...

It is in that spirit of adventure that will say goodbye to this tremendous valley and these great, Grimm forests to say hello to cottage-lined lanes and the white cliffs of Dover. I will say goodbye to summer winefestivals and hello to high teas. I will say goodbye to yellow fields of rapeseed and hello to hills of heather.

I hope you will join me.

Meantime, you can expect chatter about home organization and moving a big clan like ours. This isn't across town. It is across a continent. Across a channel. We haven't even worked out the details there yet, but we will. I am sorting through my pinterest pins and determining what has worked here and what could be done better next time. It is a fantastic challenge and I am truly enjoying it.

There are more countries on the continent to see before the move and a lot more pictures to take yet too. It is going to be a busy year indeed. : )

March 22, 2012

That is how best to sum up this week. The children have been laid low for the first time in a year now. They had a half dozen performances last weekend. I was a little concerned by all the reports we got about a significant illness 'going around'. By Sunday afternoon the first kids' dropped and fevers rose. What followed was movies, medicine, and a lot of naps and cuddles. Lots of naps and cuddles. Which might just be the best medicine.

March 21, 2012

The winner of the Speed Math giveaway is Sharron. Congrats! Good news for the rest of you too. Julie is offering everyone a coupon good for $2 off the set for the next few days.

Here are the details:

Go to Amazon and make your order. Type in the code 2YJWWG7P in the gift cards and promotion codes upon check-out at amazon to receive $2 off. The offer is good until 12:00 noon on Saturday 3/24. Don't use the one-click order option as this will cause the screen with the gift cards and promotion codes box to be skipped.

March 20, 2012

Waking up happens slowly around here. There is some sitting and looking out the window. Easing into the day, sometimes with some reluctance.

But there is nothing like the sheer joy that spills out when they realize it's not a work day and Daddy's home.

* Just a reminder there is one more day left in the Speed Math giveaway. Julie has a surprise for you as well. And Sarah has a nice giveaway at her blog too. Barbara is giving away one of her beautiful rosaries Wed as well. Lots of opportunities this week. Check it out!

March 19, 2012

Renowned offspring of David,Light of Patriarchs,Spouse of the Mother of God,Chaste guardian of the Virgin,Foster father of the Son of God,Diligent protector of Christ,Head of the Holy Family,Joseph most just,Joseph most chaste,Joseph most prudent,Joseph most strong,Joseph most obedient,Joseph most faithful,Mirror of patience,Lover of poverty,Model of artisans,Glory of home life,Guardian of virgins,Pillar of families,Solace of the wretched,Hope of the sick,Patron of the dying,Terror of demons,Protector of Holy Church,

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